REVIEW: 'Marty Pants' will get kids (and parents) laughing

Monday

May 1, 2017 at 9:00 PMMay 3, 2017 at 10:37 AM

Marty Pants, star of “Marty Pants: Do Not Open!” by Mark Parisi, is not exactly what you’d call a reliable narrator. He has issues with taking a hint, for one, and he tends to jump to conclusions about things, such as whether or not his social studies teacher is a space alien. (Marty’s answer: Of course he is.)

Fortunately, “Do Not Open!” features Parisi’s hilarious illustrations alongside Marty’s narration, so we can see exactly what’s really happening during Marty’s alien-hunting adventures. It’s a juxtaposition that’s bound to delight the third- to seventh-grade readers the series is aimed at, along with any parents lucky enough to find themselves reading it to their kids. I challenge any mom or dad with half a sense of humor to get through it without emitting a steady stream of snorts.

Parisi is the cartoonist behind “Off The Mark,” a splendidly loopy syndicated comic panel full of plays on words and slightly twisted takes on everyday life. “Do Not Open!” has to rein in the panel’s surrealist worldview in favor of characters and a plot, but it retains a sense of wry, anarchic fun -- along with a keen understanding of what life must feel like for an artistic, slightly off-kilter elementary school misfit. (I’m sure it’s not autobiographical or anything.)

Despite his foibles Marty makes for a stalwart hero: a good friend to his know-it-all buddy Roongrat, a willing test subject to junior psychologist-in-training Parker and a patient son willing to listen to his father’s endless monologues about old rock music, even if it’s mostly to use a sleep aid. He even comes through for his brainy sister Erica when she has the poor judgement to start dating Peach Fuzz, the town no-goodnick (and Marty’s nemesis, natch).

It’s an engaging supporting cast that’s easy to imagine having a bigger role in subsequent installments, but “Do Not Open!” is Marty’s show, tracing his efforts to expose his alien teacher, save the planet and win his school’s mural contest while he’s at it (but only to save the planet -- it’s all part of the plan).

All the while “Marty’s” cartoons illustrate his efforts, and you’ll find the book’s funniest moments in the drawings of Marty’s disaster of a room, his imagined alien threats and especially his ill-fated school reports, such as the one featuring the crime-fighting adventures of Abe Lincoln’s missing mustache.

(Some of the illustrations are even a little subversive. My personal favorite: Pondering impending alien destruction, Marty writes, “I look out the window. Why would anybody want to destroy all this?” -- accompanied by an illustration of a factory spewing smoke, a shuffling, hairy bum and a smoking old lady letting her dog poop on the sidewalk.)

“Do Not Open!” -- a reference to the ominously labeled folder Marty spies on his teacher’s computer -- may not blaze any new trails in the diary/cartoon combo genre popularized by “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” and “Big Nate,” but it’s certainly a welcome addition to it. And there’s even a twist at the end that might suggest Marty’s future adventures could be even more out of this world.